Chapter Thirty
~DEX~
Maxwell Cromwell has a way of making sure that you stay on his timetable when he’s around.
Not yours. So, I ended up leaving the Blaze an hour after I wanted to.
I still had time to make her a delicious dinner, not the one that I had originally planned.
I also wanted to bake her my mother’s special “death by chocolate” brownies.
But I wasn’t sure that I would get all of that accomplished with the meal I originally planned.
I had to improvise.
She was still getting those brownies. But I couldn’t make her pasta by hand anymore.
Instead, she would be settling for steak.
Which isn’t something that most would consider settling, but those people haven’t tasted my homemade pasta noodles.
Homemade drunken noodles is literally my specialty.
But she’ll have to wait for another meal to sample that.
I haul ass to the market and pick up the best cut of steak that I can find, along with some asparagus and baby red potatoes.
I want to make sure she has a good meal but one that’s not too filling.
She needs to be able to have room for dessert.
I grab the dark chocolate and the semi-sweet chocolate chips that I needed for the brownies.
I had checked her cabinets this morning to make sure she had the basics.
Only a few things were missing, like flour, a rather important ingredient, so I grab that too.
I also grab a throwaway pan for them to bake in because in all my inspections of that mess of a kitchen, I could not find baking dishes. My guess is that she doesn’t do a lot of baking despite having a sweet tooth.
I follow the signs into the wine section and grab a red wine that will complement our dinner and head home to begin preparing everything.
Little does he know that Cassie is under strict orders to keep her out of the apartment as long as she can, thanks to a quick message through Jase.
I hope it’s achievable. I want to make sure most of my dinner is prepared before she enters the apartment.
I’m leaving the market when my cell phone rings. I look down and see that it says “Elise.” I shake my head. “I do not want to talk to you,” I tell her. She can’t and won’t rain on my parade tonight. I have an awesome dinner planned with the woman, I love, and nothing is going to change that.
I hurry back to the apartment and begin preparations for our amazing dinner together. I’m hoping she likes it because acts of service is kind of my love language. I want to feed her an amazing dinner before I have her for seconds and even thirds. I can’t get enough of her.
Things are coming together beautifully by the time I hear her key in the door. I walk over to the door to see if she needs any help with things.
“Hey,” her face lights up when she sees me standing there ready to help her.
I love that because I feel my face doing the same thing when my eyes find those wide brown ones.
“Something smells amazing in here,” Amelia says as she moves into the living room, doing her best with the crutches. She drops them by the couch, her normal spot for ditching them. From there, she’ll hobble all around the apart, doing her best to keep her leg straight for the time being.
“Thank you,” I walk over to her and gather her into my arms. “I have quite the meal planned for you, so I hope you didn’t eat too much at lunch.”
“Well, I had a good lunch. But Cassie took me on took me on a meandering trip to Target, which, now that I think of it, was probably a stall tactic for you. So, I am hungry now after walking all over Target on my crutches. Which is quite the workout.”
I chuckle. “She was probably trying to make sure that you kept up your strength up and had a good appetite for my dinner.”
“Uh-huh, so now you’re roping my friends into your exploits,” she teases me.
“Well, I wanted to make sure that you were surprised.” I stare at her for a second, noticing the way she’s standing with her hands on her hips, trying to hide her smile.
“You aren’t mad at me anyways,” say as I advance on her a bit more.
“Even if you were, you wouldn’t be able to stay mad at me because of my death by chocolate brownies. ”
“You made me brownies!” she squeals.
That sound alone makes all of my preparing and planning for this dinner worth it. “I sure did, peach. I hope you are hungry.”
“Oh, football, I’m hungry alright.” Her voice drops to a sultry low. “I don’t know that it’s for dinner.”
I grin at her. “Well, as much as I want to indulge that fantasy, I think you should wait a little bit.”
“You would really deny me?” Her eyes look up into mine.
I lean down a bit so that we’re more eye level. “I totally would only because it’s so worth it and I promise you won’t be disappointed with a little delayed gratification.” I wiggle my eyebrows and wink at her. “Just trust me.”
I let my lips meet hers before she can answer me.
Our kiss isn’t tentative, because ever since that first night, we’re always hungry for each other.
It’s fast, furious and hungry. I swear if that woman had two good legs, she would be climbing me like a tree.
But she doesn’t, so I take advantage and back up a little bit.
“If you’ll excuse me, we will get to the dessert part of our evening a little later. But for right now, I need to go and check on a few things. Please make yourself at home at the table. We’ll be eating there tonight,” I say before turning on my heel and heading back into the kitchen.
“No couch picnic?” Her voice is full of surprise as I hear her hobbling into the small dining area that’s off the kitchen.
“No couch picnic,” I reply.
I watch her enter the small space and see the roses that I set up on the table.
There are two candles that have been lit and are on either side of them.
The table is set with the dinner plate and silverware.
I have the bottle of wine out on the table with the glasses.
I even took a few rose petals and spread them on the table.
The rest of those petals are scattered all over my bed. But she’ll see that surprise later.
When she turns to look at me, her face is full of shock. “I can’t believe that you did all of this.”
“Well, I wanted you to have a special night with me. I thought that I owed you a nice date night. I know it’s not a restaurant or anything but it’s my way of showing you how much I care for you.
” I lay it all out there. I want her to know that she means the world to me.
It’s crazy to think that way of her in this short period of time, at least that is what my head tells me.
But my heart says fuck, let’s go all in with this one.
The simple gestures used to impress Elise but somewhere along the line, I stopped doing them.
Instead, I bought her things and that became the symbol of my love and then the gifts only showed my absence.
With Amelia, I don’t want to stop focusing on the thoughtful gestures and leave the material things for holidays only.
“Thank you. No one has ever done anything like this for me before. This is really something.” Her eyes are shining, and I’m worried that she might cry.
I walk on over to her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m more than okay,” she tells me. Her mouth opens and she is about to say something when the oven timer rings out.
“I’m sorry, I have to get that. I don’t want to burn your brownies. Especially after you were so excited for them,” I tell her, making my way into the kitchen.
I pull them from the oven and notice how perfectly done they are.
I place a sheet of foil over the pan, tucking the edges loosely around the lip because I want them to cool but not too much.
The best part of these brownies is eating them when they are warm and gooey.
The steak is already out and resting. The sides have been prepared.
It’s time for me to serve it all up for her.
I go back into the dining area and grab our plates. “Have a seat and enjoy some wine. I’m going to make you a plate.”
I head back in and plate up her steak, placing a little bit of au jus on it. I also serve her some potatoes and asparagus. I hope that my food tastes as good as the presentation. I plate my own and head into the dining room, placing her plate in front of her first.
“Enjoy,” I tell her, while taking my seat.
“This looks so good, Dex. Thank you, really, thank you for doing this for me.”
“You’re welcome. Like I said, I wanted to show you just how special that you are to me,” I tell her.
“You sure did.” Amelia picks up her fork and steak knife, cutting into the meat and taking her first bite. A moan escapes her lips. A sound I love to hear. “Oh my god, this is amazing. One of the best steaks I’ve ever had.”
“You’re only saying that to me so that you can get into my pants later,” I tease her with a wink.
“Was there ever any doubt that that was happening later?” she goads me.
I chuckle. “No, no there wasn’t.”
We eat in silence for moment, taking sips of wine and enjoying our entrees and sides.
I notice a little moan escaping her lips every once in a while.
I mark this in the win column. I have soft music playing to help set the mood and even though we’re quiet, it’s not awkward.
It’s like we’re an old married couple that’s been doing this over and over again for years.
I love this feeling.
My cell phone rings in the kitchen, interrupting the comfortable silence between us.
“Excuse me,” I tell her, getting up quickly to check and see who is trying to reach me. The caller ID says “Elise.” I hit decline and switch the phone to silent. She will not ruin my night with Amelia.
“Did you need to take that?” she asks when I return.
I shake my head. “No, that’s a wrong number,” I lie, but she doesn’t notice. She’s too busy eating the steak I prepared for her.
“How did you know that I liked my steak medium rare?” she asks.
“Lucky guess. I cooked it the way I like it,” I admit.
“This is incredible. Where did you learn to cook like this?”
I put my fork down and take a sip of my wine before diving into it.
“My mom was a single mom. She worked late some nights and needed my sisters and I to start dinner, depending on who had practice. So, she spent time every weekend teaching us. I learned a lot from her, my sisters and watching cooking shows.”
“Well, your sisters, your mother and the cooking shows did an amazing job teaching you to cook.”
“I’m really glad you like it.” I pick up my glass and clear my throat. “I feel like I need to say this to you.”
Her face falls. “Is something wrong?”
I chuckle. “Not in the least. What I’m trying to say is that I know I’ve shown you, or at least I’ve tried, how much you mean to me.
I hope you know that you are very important to me.
And while it may be early in saying this, I have to tell you that I love you.
I think I have loved you from the minute that you stamped your foot at me when you found out I was living here.
You are this little bundle of fire and spice.
I’ve never felt like this about anyone else so fast and I think that’s because with you and me, it’s right.
“Which is why I’m not afraid to tell you that I love you.” I swallow, watching the tears form in her eyes as I speak. “You are under no obligation to say it back to me. I wanted you to know how much you mean to me. Because, Amelia, peach, you mean the world to me.”
“Wow,” Amelia says, wiping at her eyes. “I thought maybe that it was just me who was feeling such strong feelings for you so quickly. But it’s not. You feel it too.”
“I do. I feel it to. I love you.” I tell her again. I would say it again and again if I didn’t think it would send her running in the other direction because I’m smothering her.
“I love you too, Dexter. There’s no one who has made me feel as safe and loved as you have.” She rises and scoots herself over to me. “You are the best thing that I have ever been forced to live with.”
I chuckle at her choice of words. “I don’t come off so well in that last statement.”
“Shut up, football, I mean that as a compliment.” She leans in and captures my lips.
Amelia’s kiss is hungry and desperate for me. So much that she’s clinging to the collar of my polo pulling me closer to her, as close as she can get me from this position.
I pull back and say, “Are you ready to move onto the dessert portion of this evening?”
“I am, but I’m not talking about brownies, Dex. I want you.”
“As if I could ever deny you.” I rise and pull her gently to me. “Let’s take you to bed, peach.”
Carefully, I move us away from the table and pick her up bridal style. She melts into my arms, her eyes locked on mine. “It’s finally my turn to eat you,” I tell her as I walk her slowly and carefully down the hallway to my bed.